Social media systems, websites, and networks have enjoyed tremendous popularity over the past several years. Herein, social media systems, social media websites, and social media networks, regardless of distribution and/or access means, are collectively referred to as “social media systems”. Herein, social media systems include, but are not limited to, computing system implemented networks, systems, and sites that allow users to provide content, often in the form of posts, about themselves and to track and view posts from selected other users of the social media system.
Specific examples of currently available social media systems include, but are not limited to: Facehook™; Twitter™; Linkedin™; Bebo™; Classmates.com™; Google Buzz™; MySpace™; and many other post, blogging, and user content provided, websites/networks as discussed herein, and/or as known in the art at the time of filing, and/or as developed after the time of filing.
A relatively new, and very popular, feature associated with social media systems is the “user location update” feature whereby a user can inform their friends/follows of their location thru semi-automatically, or automatically, generated posts indicating the user's location and/or the business associated with that location. A specific illustrative example of a user location update feature is the “check-in” feature currently provided within the Facebook™ social media system.
The user location update feature has proven popular and useful not only to let a user's friends know where the user is located, but also to learn if the user's friends are nearby at the same time. One of the key attributes that has contributed to the popularity and usefulness of the user location update feature is the minimal user data input required and the semi-automatic, or automatic, aspect of the user location update feature that allows the user to post their location without the need to enter any text, or provide significant other user input. However, current user location update features suffer from an information gap in that current user location update features do not provide information about what the user is doing at the identified business/place, at least without significant additional user data input.
For instance, currently, when a user implements a user location update feature, such as when a user “checks-in” to a Facebook™ place or business, the standard posting that is automatically generated is not specific to, nor in way describes, any event or activity the user is attending at the identified business/place. Instead, the standard posting that is automatically generated merely provides the location and name of the business/place from which the user is checking in. This is a fairly limiting situation since, in many cases, a user is “checking in” from a given a place or business because there is a specific event that is going on at the place or business, such as a concert, movie showing, poetry reading, public meeting, etc. Despite the fact that the event/activity the user is attending is often the more interesting information, using current user location update features this information is not communicated as part of the average user location update posting. As a result, not only is this potentially interesting information never provided to the user's friends, a significant source of potential publicity for the event, and/or the business/place hosting the event, is currently not utilized/exploited.
Instead, using currently available user location update features, if the user desires to provide a more accurate, and arguably more interesting, post that indicates the event the user is attending, the user must manually enter data, typically via text entry. However, as noted above, one of the main attractions of the user location update feature, and a main source of the current popularity of the user location update feature, is the minimal user data input required and the semi-automatic, or automatic, aspect of the user location update feature that allows the user to avoid entering any text, or providing significant input. As a result, currently, a user is faced with the choice of either not informing the user's friends of the event the user is attending via the user location update post, or spending time entering text about the event when the user should instead be enjoying the event.
What is needed is a method and system that allows a user to include data indicating an event/activity associated with the user's presence at the location identified in a user location update posting without requiring significant additional user input or text data entry.